German People

By JOSEPH R. L. STERNE and JOSEPH R. L. STERNE,Joseph R. L. Sterne is editor of the editorial pages of The Sun | January 23, 1992

The German people will not forget the Holocaust. They cannotforget the Holocaust. They should not forget the Holocaust. They will not be allowed to forget the Holocaust.On the 50th anniversary this week of the Wannsee Conference, the notorious gathering in which second-echelon Nazi enforcers and very ordinary German bureaucrats ordered the hunting down and slaughter of every Jew who fell into Hitler's clutches, controversy was still gnawing at the Germans.The stately Wannsee mansion was opened as a museum to the Holocaust, the first such memorial after all these years.

Picky, Wordville's British honorary consul, recommends consideration of the peroration of A.J.P. Taylor's English History 1914-1945 . "The rhythm is particularly effective, I think," he says. Let's have a look: In the second World War the British people came of age. This was a people's war. Not only were their needs considered. They themselves wanted to win. Future historians may see the war as a last struggle for the European balance of power or for the maintenance of Empire.

Picky, Wordville's British honorary consul, recommends consideration of the peroration of A.J.P. Taylor's English History 1914-1945 . "The rhythm is particularly effective, I think," he says. Let's have a look: In the second World War the British people came of age. This was a people's war. Not only were their needs considered. They themselves wanted to win. Future historians may see the war as a last struggle for the European balance of power or for the maintenance of Empire.

100 Years Ago — Judge sludge The two items below were used as fillers at the bottom of a page of the Times , with the first item regarding a judge, followed directly by the bit about Cloverleaf. The items' placement was appropriate, the latter providing great commentary on the first. "A Rhode Island Judge has decided that a husband has the right to slap his wife when he catches her going through his pockets. The Cloverleaf Manure Spreader sold by P.T. Bennett of Sykesville is by far the best spreader made.

100 Years Ago — Judge sludge The two items below were used as fillers at the bottom of a page of the Times , with the first item regarding a judge, followed directly by the bit about Cloverleaf. The items' placement was appropriate, the latter providing great commentary on the first. "A Rhode Island Judge has decided that a husband has the right to slap his wife when he catches her going through his pockets. The Cloverleaf Manure Spreader sold by P.T. Bennett of Sykesville is by far the best spreader made.

PRESIDENT BUSH has compared postwar reconstruction in Iraq to that of Germany and Japan after World War II. The comparison is apt. In particular, America's experience in Germany offers valuable lessons for today's planners. Then-Secretary of State James F. Byrnes described America's aims: "to win the German people ... it was a battle between us and the Russians over minds." This time, the battle over minds will be with Islamic radicalism. America's success or failure in Iraq will have a crucial impact on that battle throughout the Middle East and worldwide.

History played a macabre trick on Germany when the Berlin Wall fell three years ago on the same date -- November 9 -- that Nazi thugs went on the 1938 Kristallnacht rampage against Jews that anticipated the Holocaust. Both events go to the heart of the German dilemma: how to deal with an ugly past and a present in which the high hopes of reunification have been replaced by rightwing attacks on foreigners and anything Jewish.There was a whiff of Weimar in what happened this week when political leaders tried to mark this double anniversary by leading a protest against a mounting crisis enflamed by their own dithering.

GERMANY'S unification was approved by the entire world community. It meant the recognition of the German people's will, the triumph of justice and common sense.German reunification did not promise to be easy and painless, as the states were based on completely different social and economic structures.Actual politics, however, while not questioning the appropriateness of this reconciliation, negatively affect its prospects. Parliamentary secretaries of all the groups in the FRG Bundestag decided to deny the status of a parliamentary group to 24 deputies of the Party of Democratic Socialism.

Goschenhoppen Folk FestThis weekend, the past will come back to life at the 30th annual Goschenhoppen Folk Festival at the New Goschenhoppen Park, 3rd Street in East Greenville, Pa. Volunteers in replica clothing will re-create the life and customs of Pennsylvania German people in the 18th and 19th centuries. Featured will be a blend of the scholarly and the entertaining, including traditional food, crafts, home skills, trades, music and folk itinerants.Hours are noon to 8 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

By Jonathan R. Cohen and Jonathan R. Cohen,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | April 7, 1996

Who was responsible for the systematic murder of 6 million Jews and the extermination of Europe's Jewish culture? Hitler and his high command, or the entire German nation?Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's new history, "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust" (Knopf, 640 pages, illustrated, $30), persuasively demonstrates that, although launched by the Nazi movement, the Holocaust was a national project of the German people. To the insistent question, how could something so barbaric happen in the country of Beethoven, Goethe, Hegel, Freud and Einstein, Goldhagen has a simple answer: because a vast number of Germans willingly helped make it happen, and those who didn't help stood by approvingly or uncaring.

PRESIDENT BUSH has compared postwar reconstruction in Iraq to that of Germany and Japan after World War II. The comparison is apt. In particular, America's experience in Germany offers valuable lessons for today's planners. Then-Secretary of State James F. Byrnes described America's aims: "to win the German people ... it was a battle between us and the Russians over minds." This time, the battle over minds will be with Islamic radicalism. America's success or failure in Iraq will have a crucial impact on that battle throughout the Middle East and worldwide.

By JOSEPH R. L. STERNE and JOSEPH R. L. STERNE,Joseph R. L. Sterne is editor of the editorial pages of The Sun | January 23, 1992

The German people will not forget the Holocaust. They cannotforget the Holocaust. They should not forget the Holocaust. They will not be allowed to forget the Holocaust.On the 50th anniversary this week of the Wannsee Conference, the notorious gathering in which second-echelon Nazi enforcers and very ordinary German bureaucrats ordered the hunting down and slaughter of every Jew who fell into Hitler's clutches, controversy was still gnawing at the Germans.The stately Wannsee mansion was opened as a museum to the Holocaust, the first such memorial after all these years.

By JEFFREY FLEISHMAN and JEFFREY FLEISHMAN,LOS ANGELES TIMES | November 23, 2005

BERLIN -- Angela Merkel, a pastor's daughter known for her ambition, capped a remarkable rise through German politics yesterday by becoming the nation's first female chancellor and the first to have grown up in what was then communist East Germany. The 51-year-old conservative, the youngest person to reach the chancellor's office, will lead Europe's largest economy as head of a fragile coalition that faces high unemployment, low growth and problems with the welfare state. Less a charismatic campaigner than a sober tactician, Merkel is expected to rely on her gift of persuasion to keep the government from splintering along party lines.

HELMUT Kohl was one of the great statesmen of the second half of the 20th century. He unified Germany when others thought it impossible or undesirable. He was the chief architect of European monetary and economic union. His stage-German bumpkin manner hides a fine mind. His preoccupation with nuts-and-bolts politics covered a far-sighted vision that was clearer and more purposeful than his adversaries'. That makes the Bonn prosecutors' decision to investigate the $1 million political slush fund that Mr. Kohl admits maintaining from 1993 to 1998 a tragedy -- not only for this 69-year-old gentleman and his Christian Democratic Party, but for Germany and the West.